Danbury Democrats question transfer station purchase

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Robert Miller Staff Writer

Published
1:00 am EST, Tuesday, January 13, 2009

DANBURY -- The five Democrats on the Common Council have issued a position paper on the city's proposed takeover of the trash transfer station on White Street, urging officials to proceed with caution.

"We think it's a very laudable goal," said council member
Thomas Saadi
, who leads the seven Democrats on the council. "We're not trying to be naysayers."
But Saadi said because of the many difficulties the proposal entails, the Democrats want as much information about it as possible before endorsing it.
"In many ways, the circumstances control us, not the other way around," Saadi said. "And we're going down a $10 million road here."
In reply, Mayor

Mark Boughton
rebutted the Democrat's main point -- that obtaining the transfer station's 10 acres of land and its buildings without also obtaining the businesses that operate the station might render the whole project a failure.
"If we own the land and buildings, we can always lease them to whoever wants to run the business," Boughton said. "We can charge anything we like. The going price for the lease could be $50,000 a month."
The station was once one of the central components of trash czar

James Galante
's $100 million garbage empire, which included about 25 businesses in southeastern Connecticut. That empire fell apart in 2006, when federal prosecutors charged Galante for using a combination of threats, violence and mob muscle to create a monopoly on the trash business in Fairfield County.
Galante pleaded guilty to three of those charges in June and is now serving an 87-month sentence in federal prison.
After his arrest, federal marshals seized control of his businesses and they have been running them since then. In the coming year, the federal government will probably sell off the Galante empire at auction.
After Galante's guilty plea, area leaders went on record to support the transfer station becoming a public entity, free of the corruption of organized crime. By charging all haulers fair fees, the leaders said, there will be more competition in the trash business and lower hauling fees for consumers.
The

Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority
took the lead on trying to acquire the station. But when the deal proved too unwieldy for the 11-town authority, Boughton announced in December that Danbury would step in to take ownership of the station itself, using the city's powers of eminent domain if need be.
The Common Council took one of its first steps to advance Boughton's plan Monday when the council gave preliminary approval to creation of a five-member

Solid Waste Authority
to oversee the station.
Saadi was one of four Democrats, along with
Duane Perkins
,
Fred Visconti
and
Warren Levy
, to vote against creating the authority.
Saadi said the Democrats' main fear is that the city will acquire the transfer station's land and buildings, but not the business entities that operate the station. Those now belong to the federal government, and the city cannot seize federal property through eminent domain.
"A private company could still own the businesses, which is what we want to avoid," the Democrat's letter said.
The Democrats also suggested the authority should not run the station, but allow a private company to run it. They also suggested the authority be reconsidered down the road; if it proves to be unnecessary, it should be dissolved.
And, they said, Boughton should try hard to work with U.S. Rep.
Christopher Murphy
, D-5th District, and other members of the congressional delegation to negotiate a settlement with the federal marshals before using eminent domain.
Boughton said having a private company run the station is an option the city has been considering. He also said to limit the authority to a lifespan of three years would destroy its ability to borrow or bond.
And, he said, his staff has been in contact with counterparts in the offices of Murphy, Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal
, and U.S. senators
Christopher Dodd
and
Joseph Lieberman
from the beginning of the process.
"I would say they haven't been paying attention," Boughton said of the need to enlist the state's leaders.
But he pledged Tuesday to keep the Democrats, and others, as informed as possible about the proposal.
"I acknowledge there are a lot of moving parts to this," he said.